US President Barack Obama signed Wednesday the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2) with Russia which is hoped to give a new start to mutual disarmament.
The treaty is also seen as an important landmark in the "restarting" of bilateral relations between the White House and the Cremlin.
The new START Treaty was initially agreed to and signed on April 08, 2010 by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague.
Russia ratified the treaty on January 28. START 2 is scheduled to enter in force on Saturday, February 5 after a special ceremony in Munich, Germany.
In late December 2010, both the US Senate and the the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, had approved the document.
The new Russian-US pact obligates both nations to cap their fielded strategic nuclear weapons to 1 550 warheads, while the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles must not exceed 800 on either side.
Among other actors, NATO has viewed START 2 extremely favorably. Novinite
